Negative publicity can be defined as negative information about a product, a service, a brand, an organization or an individual that is circulated through mass media such as print media and broadcast media (Dean, 2004; O'Guinn, Allen, & Semenik, 2011). Indeed, there has been a growing interest in the marketing literature concerning the effects of negative brand publicity on consumer perceptions and evaluations (Cleeren, van Heerde, & Dekimpe, 2013; Dills & Hernández Julián, 2012; Pullig, Netemeyer & Biswas, 2006; Thirumalai & Sinha, 2011). Negatively publicized instances such as defective products/services or unethical business practices are likely to impair a brand’s image and its equity. However, previous literature has mainly focused on the effect of performance-related negative publicity on consumer responses and there are limited studies about the effect of value- or ethics-related negative publicity. Owing to the inherent characteristics of inseparability and intangibility, hospitality managers need to pay particular attention to ethical issues and the detrimental impact of value-related negative publicity. This study aims to examine the impact of negative brand publicity on hotel consumers for two types of negative publicity (namely, performance-related and value-related). A content analysis and a consumer survey were conducted in China so as to investigate the hotel recovery strategy and consumer responses toward negative publicity. The content analysis was performed on two largest local daily newspapers in China. It showed that the occurrence of value-related negative publicity (e.g., not keeping promises, or dishonesty) was much greater than performance-related negative publicity (e.g., untidy room, or equipment malfunction) in China’s hotel industry. Compensations appeared to be the most common method for hotel responses toward the two types of negative publicity. The consumer survey showed that consumer responses such as hotel evaluations and patronage intentions were negatively affected by negative brand publicity. Female consumers were found to be more sensitive to unethical issues than male consumers. In other words, females were more negatively affected by value-related publicity than performance-related publicity. Managerial implications for hospitality managers are discussed.

The core and global properties of the early-type ("red sequence") galaxies in the Virgo and Fornax clusters are examined using high-quality HST/ACS imaging for 143 galaxies. Rather than dividing neatly into disparate populations having distinct formation and/or evolution histories, many of the core and global properties of these galaxies show smooth and systematic variations along the galaxy luminosity function. The few examples of the rare class of compact elliptical galaxies in our sample all show properties that are strongly suggestive of tidal stripping by massive galaxies; if so, then these systems should not be viewed as populating the low-luminosity extension of so-called "normal" elliptical sequences. These results demonstrate that complete and/or unbiased samples are a pre-requisite for identifying the physical mechanisms that gave rise to the early-type galaxies we observe locally, and how these mechanisms varied with mass and environment.

China’s copyright regime, which American businesses have repeatedly complained is not sufficiently enforced, could be successfully encouraged through a cultural policy, as an alternative to a trade policy. Through a cultural perspective, the concept of copyright might not be as remote to China’s populace as was once believed, as people can no longer blame the influence of Confucianism or suppression of private property rights. This article explores the cultural policies of the United States and China to discover a way by which a copyright system can be inherently Chinese in nature, and therefore, more likely to be enforced.

This paper will describe a powder and processing method that facilitates single press-single sintered densities approaching 7.5 g/cm³. At this sintered density, mechanical properties of the powder metal (P/M) component are significantly improved over current P/M technologies and begin to approach the performance of wrought steels. High performance gears have the added requirement of rolling contact fatigue durability that is dependent upon localized density and thermal processing. Combining high density processing of engineered P/M materials with selective surface densification enables powder metal components to achieve rolling contact fatigue durability and mechanical property performance that satisfy the performance requirements of many high strength automotive transmission gears. Data will be presented that document P/M part performance in comparison to conventional wrought steel grades.

Ancorsteel 4300, a high performance Cr-Si-Ni-Mo steel, was unveiled two years ago as the first in a series of powder metallurgy alloys that will simulate wrought steel compositions. Advantages of this alloy include good compressibility, high hardenability, and excellent dimensional stability. More important, however, is that this alloy has the ability to be effectively sintered at and maintain oxygen contents below 500 ppm. This unique blend of performance and processing capabilities provides static and dynamic properties that exceed those of conventional powder metallurgy alloys and approach wrought gearing materials. A second Cr-Si-Ni-Mo alloy has now been developed that offers complimentary performance levels at a lower Mo content. This manuscript reviews properties of the two chromium steels with comparisons to traditional sinter-hardened and heat-treated powder metallurgy alloys.

We propose an analytical model to estimate the influence of a merger on the thermal SZ effect. Following observations we distinguish between subsonic and transonic mergers. Using analytical velocity fields and the Bernoulli equation we calculate the excess pressure around a moving subcluster for an incompressible subsonic gas. Positive excess around the stagnation point and negative excess on the side of the subcluster lead to characteristic signatures in the SZ map, of the order of 10% compared to the unperturbed signal. For a transonic merger we calculate the change in the thermal spectral SZ function, resulting from bow shock accelerated electrons. The merger shock compression factor determines the power law tail of the new non-thermal electron population and is directly related to a shift in the crossover frequency. This shift is typically a few percent towards higher frequencies.

We review the observational evidence for the existence of a warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). We expect that the morphology of this material is similar to that of cosmic rays and magnetic fields in large-scale structure, i.e., filaments connecting clusters of galaxies. Direct evidence for the WHIM, either in emission or absorption, is weak.